Content Warning: This article about R. Kelly discusses sexual abuse and domestic violence. If you or someone you know is affected by the following story, you are not alone. To speak to someone, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732.
One of the accusers of R. Kelly has said in her testimony that she was “trained” to please the singer while she was just a teenager.
As per Billboard, Jerhonda Pace, a key witness in the federal racketeering and sex trafficking trial against R. Kelly, continued her testimony against him in Brooklyn yesterday, August 19th. She detailed allegations of aggressive physical and sexual abuse she underwent when she was a minor.
Pace read a journal entry dated to January 23rd, 2010, the last day she says she had a sexual encounter with Kelly. “I went to Rob’s house and Rob called me ‘a silly bitch’,” she read out. “He spit in my face and in my mouth. He choked me during an argument. I had sex with him – oral sex with him. I became fed up with him and I went home and confessed.”
Pace is now 28-years-old but was aged 16 at the time. “he wanted me to put my hair up in pigtails and dress like a Girl Scout,” she said. Pace stated that Kelly would record their encounters on either an iPhone or a Canon camera set up on a tripod. She explained that on one occasion Kelly told her to come to his tour bus parked outside of his Olympia Fields mansion to be “trained” to “please” him by another woman.
Pace was cross-examined by defense attorney Deveraux Cannick, who attempted to uncover inconsistencies in her story and portray her as being a “superfan.” Cannick accused Pace of “stalking” Kelly and lying about her age at their first sexual encounter after she claimed to have met Kelly when she was 14 on April 1, 2008, during his child pornography trial that was going on at the time. Pace said their first sexual encounter was 13 months later, when she was 16.
“So you advanced two years in one year and one month?” Cannick asked her. Pace’s birthday, it turns out, is April 19th, and she turned 15 just two weeks after her first meeting with Kelly. Cannick continued to press Pace for answers regarding her reasoning for waiting outside of Kelly’s home, previous meetings with the prosecution lasting over five hours, and talk show interviews she has given about her relationship with Kelly. “I don’t recall,” Pace responded to many of these questions.
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The Kelly trial continues. The singer is facing charges including racketeering, sexual exploitation of a child, bribery, kidnapping, and forced labor. If convicted on all counts, he will face 10 years to life in prison.
